Production Planner & Procurement Specialist

Position Summary

The Production Planner / Procurement Specialist is responsible for coordinating production planning and material procurement to ensure efficient manufacturing operations and on-time customer delivery. This role develops and maintains production schedules, manages material requirements, and partners closely with operations, quality, warehousing, and suppliers to ensure materials and resources are available to support production demand.

The Production Planner / Procurement Specialist uses data, forecasting insights, and ERP system tools to balance production capacity, inventory levels, and customer demand while minimizing cost and operational disruption. This role plays a critical part in ensuring production continuity, optimizing inventory levels, and supporting overall supply chain performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain production schedules based on customer demand, inventory levels, production capacity, and material availability.
• Evaluate customer orders and forecasts to determine production requirements and ensure timely fulfillment of delivery commitments.
• Plan material requirements and execute purchase orders to ensure raw materials, components, and packaging supplies are available to support production schedules.
• Monitor inventory levels and material usage to maintain appropriate stock levels while minimizing excess or obsolete inventory.
• Coordinate with Operations, Warehouse, and Quality teams to ensure materials are received, inspected, and available for production in a timely manner.
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal stakeholders to resolve material shortages, delivery delays, and supply chain disruptions.
• Analyze production capacity and constraints to optimize scheduling and balance labor, equipment, and material resources.
• Maintain accurate ERP system data related to purchase orders, inventory levels, production schedules, and material requirements.
• Track key supply chain and production metrics, including schedule adherence, inventory turns, supplier performance, and purchase price variance (PPV).
• Support cost management initiatives by identifying opportunities to improve purchasing efficiency, optimize supplier relationships, and reduce material costs.
• Partner with the Lab and product development teams to source new materials and onboard suppliers for new product formulations or packaging requirements.
• Communicate schedule changes and supply risks to relevant departments to ensure alignment and minimize operational disruption.
• Generate and analyze operational reports to support planning decisions and provide visibility into production and supply chain performance.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives within production planning, procurement, and inventory management processes.

Minimum Education or Equivalent Experience Required

Label: Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Management, Operations, or related field preferred. Equivalent combination of education and relevant manufacturing or supply chain experience may be considered.

Skills:

• Analysis Skills
• Business Operations
• Capacity Analysis
• Continuous Improvement
• Cost Control
• Data Quality
• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
• Forecasting
• Inventory Levels
• Inventory Management
• Inventory Turns
• Manufacturing Operations
• Materials Management
• Materials Planning
• Metrics
• Operational Audit
• Operational Strategy
• Operational Support
• Operations Management
• Procurement Management
• Procurement Planning
• Product Development
• Production Planning
• Production Schedule
• Production Support
• Production Systems
• Purchase Orders
• Purchasing/Procurement
• Receiving Inspection
• Requirements Management
• Supplier Optimization
• Supply Chain
• Supply Chain Management
• Time Management
• Vendor/Supplier Evaluation
• Vendor/Supplier Relations
• Warehousing

About the Company:

Vanguard Soap